FOR THE USE OF TEACHERS. 



No. 24. 



Leaflet 



On Nature Study. 



Especially Adapted to the Use of Children in Schools 

 IN Rural Districts. 



PREPARED BY THE 



FACULTY OF PURDUE UNIVERSITY. 



THE CARE OF THE SOIL 



By Prof. H. A. Huston. 



We cannot make something out of nothing. In ordci- that plants 

 may come to maturity they require certain materials which are prop- 

 erly called plant foods. Plants get this material from the soil and 

 from the air. The value of the plant food taken from the soil by 

 crops ought to be considered in the same light as tlie money we take 

 out of our savings bank. The more we take out the less there is left. 

 When we raise 40 average acres of wheat we take from the soil plant 

 food having a value of $147.20, and when we raise 40 average acres 

 of corn we take from the soil plant food worth $261.60. These two 

 crops remove every year from the soils of Indiana plant foods having a 

 value of over $32,000,000, or one-tweuty-third of the total value of the 

 farms of the State. We cannot take such enormous quantities of plant 

 food from our storehouse — the soil — year after year, unless we make 

 .some suitable return. In order to do this to the best advantage we 

 must study carefully both the soil which furnishes the food, and the 

 crop which uses it. We are encouraged to make the study because the 



NOTE TO THE TEACHER.— The purpose of this leaflet is to give 

 teachers such information as will enable them to answer such questions as 

 may arise in the progress of nature study. It may, however, properly form 

 the basis of several interesting oral lessons, and will suggest topics for 

 Young Farmers' Clubs or for Farmers' Institutes. 



